Norrœnt Mál - Old Norse

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I. Norrœnt Mál - Norse Speaknnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn◆

F. The History

Old Norse is considered a North Germanic language, spoken mostly in what we now consider "Scandinavia". This includes most of the Scandinavian peninsula as well as some of the surrounding areas. What is considered modern day Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Iceland. The "classical" period of the language was around the thirteenth century (1200 A.D. - 1300 A.D.). The language itself was generally divided into two major dialects and one more obscure one; Old West Norse, Old East Norse and Old Guntish. The western dialect is mutually intelligible with the eastern dialect with the only major difference being the pronunciation of certain words, so this distinction is not terribly important. Old Guntish, however, is much more obscure and therefore less is known. That aside, descendants of Old Norse are Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Faroese and Icelandic:

Old East Norse
{Swedish
{Danish

Old West Norse
{Faroese
{Norwegian
{Icelandic

Icelandic, due to its relative isolation, has not changed much in its descent from Old Norse. Just about all of our knowledge of the language comes to us through Icelandic, and therefore, Old Norse is sometimes referred to as Old Icelandic. That said, the dialect that we're specifically going to learn is Old West Norse.

U. Will this be difficult?

Unfortunately, yes. There are a couple of different reasons, the first and foremost being that resources on this language are scarce. Worry not, however; I have found a few pretty good ones and, of course, I will share them with you. The technicality aside, the language itself is a little more difficult in some ways and a little less difficult in others. Old Norse shares its genetic heritage with Old English; some of the words will not only be recognizable, but they may even function in a similar fashion to modern English. That does not mean, however, that you can fit Norse into the context of English as easily as putting two and two together to make four. It is easier to do than with, say, Latin (being a from a different language family), but it's not quite as easy as many want it to initially be. It wouldn't be worthwhile otherwise!
Don't be discouraged, though. I will try my best to break these up into bite-sized lessons for easier absorption, unlike my previous attempts to teach. As usual, I'm always available to be asked questions; I love questions. I live for them. So please, don't be afraid to ask. Rome wasn't built in a day, and Norse wasn't learned by banging one's head against a tree trunk with runes carved into it.

Þ. Why learn this language?

There is one important factor that often hinders many from learning old, dead languages: no one can say for sure how they are pronounced any longer. That can become quite the hurdle for some people. For someone like me, a language is like a good friend; before I'll learn a language, I have to like it, in the same way that you have to like a person to become friends with him or her. One of the most quintessential things about a language is the sound. The sound of a language is like the window into its soul, and not being able to hear a language would be like having a friend you couldn't communicate with. It almost makes me sad. But it doesn't! Why not?

There's a way around this, of course. While the language is dead, it wasn't always that way. Once, it was alive and kicking, just like the language you're reading now. It was once the medium of communication for a people just like yours, or mine, or his, or hers. This was how those people expressed themselves. Literally, and even figuratively. In the same way that an artist expresses himself or herself with color! So, how do we feel that same expressive power? By being in the language. Knowing the culture, familiarizing oneself with it, relating to it, maybe even becoming one with it. When you walk like a viking, think like a viking, swing a sword like a viking and wrestle a polar bear to the snow like a viking (enjoy my facetious tone!), then you'll talk like one too. Once you can do that, not only will you have the academic knowledge of the language and its culture, but you'll have something to go along with it that so many have forsaken these days. I want you to see Old Norse in the same way I do: as a friend with its own quirks, flaws, and awesome qualities that helps you express yourself in ways you didn't know were possible.

So, excited? I hope so. Without further ado, let's go!

[I. Introduction] [II. Resources] [III. Pronunciation] [IV. Cases] [V. Vowel Shifts] [VI. Nouns and the Article]

 

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II. Things I've Found to Help You Get Theremmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm◆

F. Dictionary

A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic
- The best dictionary I've found so far, but unfortunately, only in ON/OI > English. Also has paradigms (declension/conjugation charts) which are useful.

U. Paradigms

http://www.alarichall.org.uk/teaching/Alaric's magic sheet.pdf
- The URL tag wouldn't work for this, so you'll have to just copy/pasta this right into your address bar. You can use the Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic for this, too.

Þ. Texts

The Poetic Eddas transcribed
- The site is in Norwegian, but it's pretty easy to find what you're looking for (all the links straight down the page are the sections of the Eddas). The Poetic Eddas are talked about a lot, and I'll probably mention them a few times in the lessons.

Historical Manuscripts
- Provides photos of original manuscripts that date back quite far. You can look up the original Icelandic sagas, hand-written in Old Icelandic, so on and so forth.

A. Vocabulary

Core Norse Vocabulary
- A simple list of most often used words for reading. More helpful than I initially thought!

[I. Introduction] [II. Resources] [III. Pronunciation] [IV. Cases] [V. Vowel Shifts] [VI. Nouns and the Article]

 

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- Reserved for Pronunciation -

 

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IV. Step One: CasesSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS◆

F. What is a case?

Oh no! This language has cases! What are we going to do? Well first of all, don't panic. They're not as difficult as they seem. To start, I will give the technical definition of a case: Cases are inflections of nouns to illustrate that noun's grammatical function in a sentence. What does that mean? It just so happens that English has a very select few number of cases that we still use in speech.

Take the pronouns [I, me, mine]. Notice that all of these describe the speaker. What do the different forms mean, then?
> You only use when the speaker is the subject.
> [Me] is used when the speaker is the object of a verb or a preposition.
> Finally, [mine] is used to show that the speaker possesses something.

These are English cases. Different forms of the same (pro)noun to show different grammatical functions. Easy, right? These cases also have names, and while you may not have ever heard them being used in terms of English grammar, it is still important to know what they're called, as they are used in Old Norse a bit more often than in English. So here they are:
is in the "nominative" case.
[Me] is in the "accusative" case.
[Mine] is in the "genitive" case.
Old Norse utilizes the same three cases, plus one more. The fourth is called the "dative" case, and this case is used when the noun is the indirect object (whereas English simply uses the accusative plus a preposition). Example?

"The teacher is teaching me. (Accusative.)
"The teacher gives the book to me. (This would be the English "dative", a preposition [to] + the accusative.)

Old Norse will simply have a fourth form of a noun for this situation. So now that we know what cases are, let's move on!

U. The Nominative

The first case, as I said, marks the subject. The nominative case is often overridden by other cases if the noun happens to be both the subject and something else. In the case that a verb is passive or intransitive (more on these things later), the nominative is used with them.

Þ. The Accusative

This case governs things that are direct objects of verbs. As previously mentioned, passive and intransitive verbs do not take on direct objects. So nouns that would be a passive or intransitive verb's direct object are to be in the nominative.

A. The Genitive

Shows possession. Usually, this can be given in English by saying "of [noun]". It will help the learner to try to think of all instances of the genitive during translation as "of [noun]" in lieu of "[noun]'s". So when you say "the student's book", try to think more along the lines of "the book of the student" when translating.

R. The Dative

Shows indirect objects and is often the case used with prepositions. So a noun in the dative may be considered as "to/for/at/with/by/from/in/on [noun]", so on and so forth. So many possibilities! Don't worry; a preposition is usually given to show what's going on, and without one, certain situations will denote what you're supposed to think. I will explain more on this later.

[I. Introduction] [II. Resources] [III. Pronunciation] [IV. Cases] [V. Vowel Shifts] [VI. Nouns and the Article]

 

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V. Step Two: Vowel ShiftsSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS◆

F. What do you mean by vowel shift?

First, I have to mention the way words usually work in Old Norse. There will generally be a "stem" and an "ending". The stem is the part of the word that doesn't change (for the sake of simplicity, let's assume this first); the ending is the part that is altered to show different cases. An example:

>Hvalr (Nominative case)
>Hval (Accusative case)
>Hvals (Genitive case)
>Hval (Dative case)

It can be interpreted that the "stem" is hval- and the ending is -r. It is either altered (-r > -s) or dropped to indicate different cases.

Now, vowel shift. For some words, the vowel within the stem will change, which occurs quite often. It's a common feature of Germanic languages; there is German umlaut, and it even happens in English (e.g. write > wrote; mouse > mice). There is a way to sort of predict how this will happen in Old Norse.

U. The vowel groups

The vowels are usually divided into two groups: Front vowels and back vowels. The front vowels are as follows:
A
Ö (or: Ǫ)
Œ
É
E
Í
I
Á
Æ
Ei
Ja
Já
Jæ
Jö

And the back vowels are listed here:
O
U
Y
Ó
Ú
Ý
Au
Ey
Jo
Jú

It's not necessary to remember this list exactly. The way vowels shift around may seem dauntingly confusing at first, but it's easier if you use this list as a reference; don't try to memorize these rules, but rather, come back to review the list when you see a vowel has shifted.

Þ. The Transmutation

We'll start at the top. I'll be using Norse words as examples, but don't worry about knowing what they mean just yet; I will define them later when we start to learn more grammar. This list will be rather large, and I apologize.

A becomes:
i. Ǫ in the case that:
> The case ending is U, and A is in the first syllable, e.g. saga > sǫgu
> There is a U in the syllable immediately following the first, where the first is A, e.g. bakari > bǫkurum
> The noun is neutral and ends with a consonant. (This usually concerns distinguishing the singular from the plural.) E.g. land > lǫnd
> The adjective's neutral form ends with a consonant (again, usually to distinguish the singular from the plural). E.g. glað > glǫð
> The adjective is one syllable and ends with a consonant; the feminine will usually drop the consonant and shift the vowel. E.g. hagr > hǫg.

ii. E in the case that:
> The noun, adjective or verb is derived into one of the first three mentioned or becomes and adverb, preposition or the like. E.g. nafn (noun) > nefna (verb); land (noun) > lenda (verb).
> The ending is solely the letters I or R, e.g. dagr > degi; faðir > feðr.
> A verb's first person form is only one syllable, e.g. taka > ek tek.

iii. Á in the case that:
> Certain verb forms are conjugated in a certain way (we'll cover this in detail later). E.g. drapa > drápum. (This mutation is quite rare, so don't get too bothered by it.)

E becomes:
i. A in the case that:
> The imperative of certain verbs is only one syllable. E.g. bella > þik ek ball.

ii. I in the case that:
> A verb's second person form ends in -ir, e.g. regna > þú rignir.
> A noun, adjective or verb is derived into one of the first three mentioned or becomes an adverb, preposition or the like. E.g. verð (noun) > virða (verb).

iii. Á in the case that:
> A verb's first person is one syllable, not ending in a consonant. E.g. bregða > ek brá

iv. Ó in the case that:
> The imperative of certain verbs is one syllable, not ending in a consonant. E.g. drega > dró!

I becomes:
i. A in the case that:
> A verb's imperative is only one syllable, e.g. finna > fann!

Á becomes:
i. E in the case that:
> A certain class of verbs are changed to the past participle (the past participle will be covered in detail later). E.g. drápa > drepinn

ii. O in the case that:
> A different class of verbs are changed to the past participle. E.g. stela > stolinn

iii. Æ in the case that:
> A noun's ending is either -i or -ir. E.g. þráðr > þræði > þræðir

O becomes:
i. A in the case that:
> The second syllable contains A and the first contains O, e.g. sok > saka > sakar

ii. E in the case that:
> The case ending is either -i or -r, e.g. bork > berki; mork > merkr

iii. Y in the case that:
> A noun, adjective or verb is derived into one of the first three mentioned or becomes an adverb, preposition or the like. E.g. smjor (noun) > smyrja (verb)

Ei becomes:
i. I in the case that:
> Certain verbs conjugate in a certain way. E.g. beiða > biðum
> A noun, adjective or verb is derived into one of the first three mentioned or becomes an adverb, preposition or the like. E.g. heitr (adjective) > hiti (noun)

Ja becomes:
i. Jǫ in the case that:
> Certain nouns become plural. E.g. djarf > djǫrf.

ii. O in the cast that:
> A certain class of verbs is changed into the past participle. E.g. bjarga > borginn

O becomes:
i. Y in the case that:
> Certain nouns become plural. E.g. son > synir

ii. E in the case that:
> I don't know, actually. It's extremely rare; the only case I can think of is: hnot > hnetr

U becomes:
i. Y in the case that:
> Certain nouns are changed to the dative case. E.g. guð > gyðja

Ó becomes:
i. Πin the case that:
> Certain nouns become plural. E.g. kló > klœr

ii. Y in the case that:
> A noun, adjective or verb is derived. E.g. fólk (noun ["people"]) > fylki (noun ["district"]).

Ú becomes:
i. Y/Ý in the case that:
> Certain nouns become plural. E.g. mús > myss
> A noun, adjective or verb is derived. E.g. húð > hýða

Au becomes:
i. Ey in the case that:
> Certain forms of adjectives decline in certain ways. E.g. lauss > leysa

Jo becomes:
i. Y in the case that:
> A verb's first person is reduced to one syllable. E.g. brjóta > ek brýt

Jú becomes:
i. Y in the case that:
> A verb's first person is reduced to one syllable. E.g. ljúga > ek lýg

And that's it. That was quite a list, wasn't it? As forementioned, don't try to memorize this list, but use it as a reference and guide while reading through the other lessons.

Hope to see you next lesson! We're going to start declining things, oh no! Bring your hard hats.

[I. Introduction] [II. Resources] [III. Pronunciation] [IV. Cases] [V. Vowel Shifts] [VI. Nouns and the Article]

 

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VI. Step Three: Nouns and the ArticleSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS◆

F. What are nouns?

Nouns are simple; they are things that name things, concrete or abstract. They are sometimes referred to as substantives. In Old Norse, they function a bit differently from the English noun. If you remember the lesson on cases, then this will be important. Each noun will decline into each case, having the meaning described in that lesson. Here is a very brief and concise review:

I. Nominative = "subject"
II. Accusative = "direct object"
III. Genitive = "possessor"
IV. Dative = "indirect object"

Changing a noun from the nominative into any of these other cases is called declining the noun, the process itself referred to as declension.
It may be easier to understand how declining works when it is used in action, so we'll get to that soon. For now, I'll talk about how the Norse noun differs from the English one and what you'll have to watch out for outside of declining it.
Norse nouns have three genders: masculine, feminine and neutral. This doesn't necessarily refer to a noun's natural gender, but rather, refers to something called grammatical gender. This will determine how adjectives and articles will interact with the noun. Speaking of which...

U. Articles? Like in magazines?

No, silly! For a technical definition, a grammatical article is a small word used with a noun to limit its definiteness. In other words, it determines how specific the noun is. There are typically two categories of articles: definite or indefinite.
The English language utilizes both. The words a or an are the indefinite article. Its limitation of definiteness is loose; we are being rather unspecific when we use it. "A book" implies just one unspecified book.
On the other hand, the word the is our definite article. Its limitation is much more narrow, as we are talking about something very specific. "The book" means that it's already been mentioned; we may even know the title!

Old Norse also has one indefinite and one definite article. The difference is that the articles will have three genders and decline to match the noun they're attached to. This sounds scary, but worry not; we'll take it slowly.
The indefinite article is the same word for "one". Thus, when used with a noun, it can be translated as either "one [noun]" or "a [noun]". It usually comes right before the noun, as in English.
The definite article is the same word for "that". It can be translated with a noun as "the [noun]" or "that [noun]". It may come before the noun, as in English, but it may be affixed to the end of a noun as well. If you are familiar with a modern Scandinavian language (excluding Finnish), then you'll already be familiar with this concept. We'll get to using them very soon.

Þ. The first paradigm

This is the meat of nouns; declension. We'll start by declining the articles first. I will arrange it like this:

Masculine form, feminine form, neutral form - definition

Masc Sing | Fem Sing | Neut Sing | Masc Plur | Fem Plur | Neut Plur
Nom. Ms | Fs | Ns | Mp | Fp | Np
Acc. Ms | Fs | Ns | Mp | Fp | Np
Gen. Ms | Fs | Ns | Mp | Fp | Np
Dat. Ms | Fs | Ns | Mp | Fp | Np

Ready? Here we go!

Indefinite Article
Einn, ein, eitt - One; a; an

Nom. einn | ein | eitt | einir | einar | ein
Acc. einn | eina | eitt | eina | einar | ein
Gen. eins | einnar | eins | einna | einna | einna
Dat. einum | einni | einu | einum | einum | einum

Keep that in mind; we'll be declining the definite article next, then nouns, and then we'll start putting it all together!

Definite Article
Hinn, hin, hitt - The; that

Nom. hinn | hin | hitt | hinir | hinar | hin
Acc. hinn | hina | hitt | hina | hinar | hin
Gen. hins | hinnar | hins | hinna | hinna | hinna
Dat. hinum | hinni | hinu | hinum | hinum | hinum

Look at that. The forms are almost identical! Shouldn't be too hard to keep them in mind, right?

A. Noun groups

There are lots of different "types" of nouns; nouns in a particular group usually decline in a similar fashion. These noun groups are typically referred to as declensions, but I prefer to simply color-code them. The way they decline is usually pretty particular. What I will do is give you the name of the group and point out how you will know that it belongs to this group. This specification will vary with each group, so keep that in mind. That said, the first group of nouns we're going to learn about are cerulean nouns!

Cerulean Nouns

Cerulean nouns are all masculine and end in one of these consonants: -l, -n, -r, -s in the nominative and end with -s in the genitive. I will give the paradigms in this fashion:

[Nominative form], [specific form(s)] (gender) - English translation

Singular | Plural
Nom.
Acc.
Gen.
Dat.

Got all that? Here we go!

Hestr, hests (Gen.Sing.) (m) - Horse

Nom. Hestr | Hestar
Acc. Hest | Hesta
Gen. Hests | Hesta
Dat. Hesti | Hestum

Now that you've been given all these complicated charts, let's put it together!

R. Making a sandwich

How do we start? Let's begin with just stating something obvious. That is "a horse." How do we say this in Old Norse? Naturally, the indefinite article will come first, but remember! We need to know the gender of the noun to use the right form of the article! Our noun is masculine, so we're going to use the masculine form. It'll also be the subject, or nominative, so we'll use the form einn. Likewise, we're going to use the nominative form of the noun, so hestr. So what's that again? It's einn hestr.

What if I asked you if you have a horse? You might say "Yes, I have a horse." What is different about this horse? It's the direct object of "have", isn't it? So we're going to be using the accusative now, right? Have you got a horse? Yes, I have einn hest.

What if you want to give an apple to the horse? Well now we're using the definite article, and it's the indirect object of the verb, give, isn't it? So first, horse will become dative (hesti) and the article will as well (hinum). So go ahead and give that apple hinum hesti.

Now here's where it gets interesting. What if we just want to say "the horse", but affix the definite article to the end of the noun, like I said you could before? We shall. When you do this, the h- in the article will always drop off. Sometimes, but not always, the first -i- will follow. It will become easier to recognize when it does this as we go. So, let's affirm that the horse is present. Yes, hestrinn is there.

Do you have the horse? Yes, I have hestinn.

I'll give an apple hestinum.

Starting to see how it works now? Practice and keep at it, and you'll get it soon enough.

[I. Introduction] [II. Resources] [III. Pronunciation] [IV. Cases] [V. Vowel Shifts] [VI. Nouns and the Article]